


Finding The Perfect Fit

by McChekovIsNowMyLife (DestielLover97)



Series: What Happens Next [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2014-11-13
Packaged: 2017-12-15 10:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/848329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestielLover97/pseuds/McChekovIsNowMyLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year into their five year mission, and McCoy ends up spending a lot of time with Chekov which leads to something neither of them expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mysterious Flu

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy the story, and feel free to review. You don't have to have read the other story, but feel free to anyway :D

This morning Pavel had woken up with the biggest headache in the whole universe. He’d never really been drunk before, so he was not ready for a hangover this big. But, as far as he could remember, and he remembered coming back to the ship at the end of the night, he’d only had one beer, so it couldn’t be a hangover…

Then he sneezed, which was just peachy. He didn’t want to call in sick, because that would mean going to sickbay and possibly running into Dr McCoy which he didn’t want to risk under any circumstances. There was no way to explain it, but every time he saw the older doctor he felt his heart flutter and his knees weaken, and just…

So, he took some pain relief meds and went about getting ready to head to the bridge for his shift. As he was walking along the corridor though, everything he heard felt like it had been magnified times ten so, by the time he had reached the bridge, sniffling and sneezing all the way there which certainly didn’t help, he was in a somewhat bad mood and his headache had gotten a lot worse.

Slowly, as he sat down and looked around, he realised that Alice, a friend of his he’d been out with last night, hadn’t shown up for her shift this morning. But he just shrugged off whilst sneezing again, assuming she just had a hangover, and tried his best to concentrate on his work station through bleary eyes.

 

XxX

 

Jim’s patience was running thin. He loved his crew, he really did, but even he had his limits. The fact that he hadn’t had sex in over a week may or may not have anything to do with his current frustration.

He knew the kid wasn’t doing it on purpose, they had just come back from shore leave so he’d probably caught this cold/flu thing while he was away from the ship, but the sneezing was becoming too much. They were only about 10 minutes into alpha shift (and Jim was quite proud that he hadn’t snapped sooner because SERIOUSLY!) when he, rather unintentionally rudely, said,

“Mr Chekov, although I’m sure your work is still as outstanding as ever, it may serve the needs of the crew better if you went to the med bay instead of staying here and spreading your germs” and as soon as it had left his mouth he knew he shouldn’t have said it, could feel the disapproval of everyone else, but he was really stressed out, he couldn’t help what came out of his mouth.

He could feel Spock’s stare burning through the back of his head as Chekov, between sneezes, got out of his seat and shuffled over to the turbo lift doors, all the while saying,

“Yes keptin, sorry about this keptin” as he looked down at the floor. As soon as the turbo lift doors closed Jim sunk down into his chair, still feeling Spock looking straight at him. He wouldn’t be getting any sex tonight either by the looks of it.

 

XxX

 

Chekov stumbled slightly as he was nearing the medical bay. The headache was getting progressively worse, and as well as not wanting to see McCoy, his morning was absolutely terrible. The only solace, oddly, would be seeing McCoy. It was a vicious cycle, but it may make him feel slightly better.

Luckily, there was nobody else in the corridor to see him almost fall over on his face as his vision began to blur, and he was starting to think that maybe he should have gone straight to med bay this morning, instead of going to the bridge and pretending to be fine.

The doors to med bay opened and he got a glimpse of Dr McCoy walking out of his office, making him smile slightly as he saw McCoy rush forward towards him as he felt himself fall forward, his vision going black.

 

XxX

 

McCoy had been treating patients all day. A rather rare form of the flu had managed to spread itself around a lot of the crew who had gone down to the nearby planet for shore leave. It shouldn’t seriously harm anyone, but it would leave his patients bedridden and feeling like hell for a couple of days. 17 people now had to take the next two days off to recover, and for the younger crew members it was more like 3 or 4. For some reason, the younger crew members were even more susceptible to this thing, and it would leave them a lot weaker. One girl, Yeoman Morris who was only 24, would need extra care as the disease worked its way into her system. God damned foreign planets.

Just as he was considering how lucky he was that he didn’t catch it himself, even though he was an ‘old man’ as Jim put it, he heard the ping of his communicator signalling a message from Jim. Think of the devil and he shall appear. Then the unmistakable sneezing of another patient filled his ears as he read Jim’s message to find out that he had had to send Mr Chekov down to see him because he had the sniffles.

He hastily left his office and stopped in his tracks when he saw a very pale and unsteady looking Pavel Chekov look up at him, give a faint smile, then collapse onto the floor as McCoy rushed forward to grab him.

“Jesus Christ” McCoy sighed as he reached the boy’s side, realising he was unconscious, “Chapel, somebody, anybody come and give me a hand” McCoy yelled as he crouched down next to Chekov to make sure he was still breathing. Christine rushed forward, helping him to lift the young boy up onto the nearest bed as gently as they could.

“What happened?” asked Christine as McCoy ran his tricorder over the young ensigns body, feeling slightly relieved as he realised nothing was seriously wrong, but muttering all the while,

“It must have affected him worse than the others, but why? He is 4 years younger than anyone else I suppose…” McCoy trailed off as he realised that firstly, he needed an action plan and secondly, he’d been asked a question.

“I think he’s ill with the same virus that those others who called in sick have. Must be worse for him because he’s much younger than the others.” McCoy sighed, looking round the medical bay as if it would give him some form of inspiration as to what to do next. But before he could make a decision, Chapel started moving round the bed,

“Okay, so we’ve got to start him up on a strong dose of the medication we gave the others, and we can both keep monitoring him while he has to stay here, and…” but she trailed off as McCoy just stared at her in awe. She was totally calm, had a battle strategy, and knew what to do, and he’d panicked? Maybe he was losing his touch, “Are you alright Doctor McCoy?”

At that question Leonard realised he was still staring and shook his head, answering in a slightly gruff tone,

“I’m fine, just didn’t get much sleep last night.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “That sounds like a plan, I’ll just go and message Jim” and McCoy went back to his office, sitting down and wondering why he had just panicked seeing Chekov collapse on the floor.

 

XxX

 

It was just over two hours before McCoy started to think about finding out exactly what this virus was so that he could further examine it and find a quick cure. He’d been worrying over Chekov’s bed for over an hour, hoping he would wake up. But it didn’t matter anyway, the ship was already at warp, pulling away from the planet they had been on, so all he would be able to do was study a subject who had been infected, and the easiest solution was lying outside the door, passed out from the strength of said virus.

He had decided that they only needed to start worrying about the boy if he didn’t wake up in the next 6 hours. After that, there may be a problem, but for now he was sleeping off the tiring effects of day 1 of the disease. So it couldn’t hurt to run some extra tests, right? Chekov wasn’t even awake yet anyway, so he wouldn't be hurting anyone by just running a few extra tests.

He left his office, walking over to Chekov's bed, looking down at the young boy sleeping peacefully. He took a moment just to look down at him sleeping, wondering how someone so innocent could be lying in one of his beds now, completely unconscious.

He picked up the tricorder, running it over Chekov very slowly, trying to find the source of whatever was happening to all the people on the ship.

As the tricorder was beeping away, McCoy found his eyes wandering over Chekov's face, staring at his closed eyes and being drawn to looking at his lips. As soon as he realised what he was doing he quickly looked away and couldn’t stop the slight blush that rose on his cheeks. But it wasn’t a blush because he was Doctor Leonard McCoy and he did not blush.

 

As he looked away, trying to will the blush away from his face, he didn’t immediately notice the movement coming from the bed next to him, but quickly turned as he heard a sound coming from Pavel,

“Doktor?” he croaked, slowly opening his eyes to look up at McCoy.


	2. Pavel Wakes Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year into their five year mission, and McCoy ends up spending a lot of time with Chekov which leads to something neither of them expected.
> 
> In this chapter, Pavel wakes up and some unexpected bonding occurs

The last thing Pavel remembered was seeing Doctor McCoy looking at him very worriedly. Now he wasn’t quite sure where he was. He could tell he was lying in a bed, and his brain was slowly connecting the dots indicating that he was, in fact, lying in a bed in the medical bay. Which made sense because the Captain had sent him there earlier because he had been sniffling and disturbing the rest of the crew.

He decided to open his eyes and look around; shuffling slightly because he wasn’t entirely comfortable lying in the bed, and as he opened his eyes he saw Doctor McCoy stood next to his bed, looking away from him.

“Doktor?” he croaked, and McCoy whipped around and stared at him for a second before he moved to stand right next to the bed, looking at him with a face full of worry and relief. For a second Pavel felt that little ray of hope in his chest that maybe McCoy felt something for him, was worried about him because he cared. But then he remembered that of course the doctor would be worried, he was a doctor after all and Pavel had collapsed in his medical bay this morning for no apparent reason. He could still hope though.

Pavel was pulled from his thoughts when he realised that Doctor McCoy had started talking and asking him questions, so he tuned in to listen and try and answer his questions,

“I’m glad you woke up kid. I’ll be honest, it was a bit touch and go at first, you had everyone worried about you. Now, how do you feel exactly, what actually hurts? Oh, and I’m going to need to know exactly what you did last night down on that planet, I need to know how this thing spread, you’re not the only one who’s ill at the moment you know.” and he carried on, not letting Pavel talk at first, but eventually stopping when he started wanting answers instead of just thinking of more questions.

 

XxX

 

The end of Alpha shift couldn’t come soon enough for anyone, especially for Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. Pavel had left almost 8 hours ago and since then he hadn’t returned and the only thing the captain had said was that Chekov was seriously ill and wouldn’t be around for a while. So now Sulu was itching to leave the bridge and go and see his best friend. And he knew the captain must know more about what was happening than he was letting on, which was frustrating to say the least.

As soon as he heard the chime indicating the end of their shift, Sulu was the first one out of his chair and was out of the door before anyone else had even risen. It seemed like forever before he reached the corridor that led to the medical bay, and as he turned the corner and walked through the door he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

He felt a huge surge of relief run through him when he saw Pavel propped up against about a million pillows, drinking a glass of water through a straw, but what surprised him was who was sat there with him. Pavel was lying there, innocent look on his face with just a hint of a smile, and Doctor McCoy was sitting on a chair next to his bed laughing, presumably at something Pavel had just said. The sight of McCoy even smiling was so rare in of itself that Sulu had to take a second to compose himself before he strode forward, hoping to find out what had happened to his best friend.

 

XxX

 

McCoy hadn’t been keeping track of the time. At first, he had been constantly moving after Chekov had woken up, trying to find out what had happened to him and to make him more comfortable, and just generally take care of him. More than once he had seen Christine looking over at him, smiling softly or laughing, but making no move to interfere in what he was doing. Then, Chekov had complained that he was bored of being a patient and had insisted that McCoy take a small break and sit down with him to talk.

Two hours later, Pavel had just finished telling a quite an embarrassing story about something that had happened to him when he was little, and McCoy sat there laughing while Chekov had this cute smile on his face. They had both forgotten, apparently, that Alpha shift had to finish at some point and of course Chekov would get an onslaught of visitors, so McCoy felt very embarrassed when he saw Sulu walking over towards Chekov’s bed, giving them a slightly funny look.

McCoy, with his surly grumpy doctor look back on his face, stood and, looking at Sulu said, “I’ll let you two have some time to talk” and retreated back towards his office.

He had been so stupid. He could now hear Chekov explaining what had happened to him, telling Sulu about the mystery illness that had affected a load of the crew. He checked his watch and saw the time and realised that he had just spent the last two hours just chatting with Chekov, not doing anything medical in any way. What would Jim say if he knew? He quickly decided that he didn’t care what the captain would have to say, but still, what was he thinking? But it had been so easy to just sit there and talk to the boy, seeing him laugh and be happy, even though he was sat there ill in a hospital bed.

McCoy decided to just shake away all of these thoughts from his brain, focusing on the fact that more voices could now be heard from outside his office, indicating more of the crew and most likely Jim had come down to check on the boy, and that he would be needed to explain some of what was going on.

He sighed, rising from his seat and heading towards the door of his office, thinking about anything but the smile he had seen on Chekov’s face earlier that day.

 

XxX

 

Jim had decided that he would have a small get together that evening of some of his closer friends and crew members because Spock was giving him the silent treatment. Again. Apparently he had done something wrong, yet again, causing Spock to ignore him for reasons that he didn’t even understand. He had snapped at Chekov on the bridge that morning, but how was he supposed to know that he had been seriously ill!

The gathering turned out being just McCoy and Scotty because everyone else was busy, but that was cool, they were his closest friends anyway. Scotty had welcomed the chance to have a drink and talk with friends and Jim had managed to pull a reluctant McCoy out of his sick bay (and away from Chekov) to come over to his quarters for a drink and a game of poker. They had just finished their third round and Bones was winning, as always, when Jim decided they needed a more interesting conversation.

“So Scotty, although I know that Bones here is continuing his vow of celibacy, what about you? I heard a rumour that you and a certain yeoman have been seen together.” and he wiggled his eyebrows at the end of his sentence for emphasis.

Bones choked on his scotch at the mention of his name but Scotty just turned a little bit pale and started to shift uncomfortably. Jim continued his knowing stare but Bones was off on a rant before Jim could pester the Scotsman further,

“For the last time Jim, just because I don’t parade my private life around the entire godforsaken ship, and talk about having sex with ‘my super-hot Vulcan boyfriend’ all the time does not mean that I’m not getting any. And even though I may not have a current partner, doesn’t mean I’ve taken a vow of celibacy. Jesus Christ!” and then he just huffed, going back to drinking his scotch.

Jim, not at all startled by McCoy’s rant, just laughed and clapped him on the back, stealing a glance over to a relieved looking Scotty, and settled back into his chair, picking up the abandoned cards.

“Round four?” he asked, laughing when Scotty sighed and started complaining about how McCoy had practically taken all of his money already, but never-the-less settling in for another hand.

None of them forgot about the mention of Scotty’s seemingly new girlfriend, but they all made a sort of silent agreement that it didn’t need to be brought up again because it had clearly made Scotty uncomfortable.

They continued playing their game well into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the second installment. A review would be appreciated so I know your thoughts on what's happening :D


	3. Waiting To Get Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year into their five year mission, and McCoy ends up spending a lot of time with Chekov which leads to something neither of them expected.
> 
> In this chapter, Chekov starts to feel better and McCoy gets somewhat distracted from work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next installment. Just to clarify, the brakes in text are the changes in POV, not necessarily a time jump. Enjoy the read

When Pavel woke up the next morning he forgot for a second what had happened the day before. Then everything came crashing back; he was lying in the medbay, he couldn’t move around without his body aching, and he remembered having seen the most amazing smile on Dr McCoy’s face the day before. That thought had him blushing as he looked around to make sure the doctor was nowhere in sight.

Thankfully, the nurses from night shift were still present, but he could sense the changeover was coming up. They were doing their final checks on patients that they did right before they were scheduled to leave. Sure enough, not two minutes later, Christine entered. Upon seeing him awake, she came over to check on him and see how he was doing.

“So you survived the night” she said with a small smile on her lips, whilst checking over his vitals from the past 12 hours, “Do you need anything?” she asked, turning to look at him with concern showing in her eyes,

“Some water” Pavel said quietly in answer, not sure whether speaking would hurt his throat because he hadn’t had anything to drink for a while. Christine immediately poured him a glass, handing it to him with a straw in as Dr. McCoy had done the day before.

After taking a sip, Pavel’s throat felt a lot less sore and he croaked out a “thank you” before settling back in bed to try and get some more sleep because he was feeling rather tired, despite having just woken up.

The next time he woke it was to the sound and sight of McCoy arriving in the doorway to the medical bay. He must have been running a bit late because his hair looked quite disheveled and he looked as though he had just been running. He observed as Christine went over to him and they had a quick conversation before McCoy said something and then strolled into his office.

Pavel sighed again and leant back against his pillow, realising that until he was well enough to leave, all he would be able to do was people watch and hope he would get better quickly.

 

XxX

 

That morning when McCoy woke up he was feeling a bit hungover from the previous night’s drinking. He’d stayed up ridiculously late the night before playing poker and drinking whiskey, and now he was feeling the side effects. He glanced over to look at the clock and realised he was running late for his shift. So, whilst cursing Jim and his damn poker nights, he rolled out of bed to get ready for work.

By the time he reached the medbay he was surprised to find that he was only actually half an hour late. And considering that he was the one in charge, it wasn’t like he was going to get into trouble for being late. As he entered the medical bay he glanced over at Chekov who appeared to still be sleeping, but was quickly distracted as he was met by Christine,

“You’re a bit late this morning, late night? Anyway, we still need to keep an eye on Chekov incase his status changes, and he’s been a bit quiet this morning, I don’t know whether to be worried. It’s normal for him” she trailed off with a small sigh and all McCoy could do was smile at her and reply,

“I’m sure he’s fine, I’ll talk to him later. Now, I’m hungover and tired so if you’ll excuse me” and he stepped around her, ignoring the smirk, and headed into his office. It turns out that the only thing that had actually happened in his half an hour absence was that a message had come for him from Jim about plans they now apparently had the following week, so nothing had been missed.

He settled down into his chair and picked up his PADD, going over the reports that M’Benga had made overnight.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the day, and McCoy made a decision to avoid talking to Chekov, fearing what had happened yesterday would happen again and result in something bad. ‘But would it be bad?’ said a little nagging voice in his head, which he pointedly ignored.

The next day was exactly the same as the one before, minus the hangover, except... He could feel that Chekov was now watching his nearly every move, and he didn’t know if he did it consciously or not, but it was very distracting. He understood that the boy was probably bored out of his mind, but he was fixated on McCoy, and it was making his everyday life a lot harder. His concentration was slipping, knowing he was constantly being observed.

The boy was continuing to improve though, slowly but surely. McCoy was certain that the next day, they would be able to get him out of the bed and on his feet, even if only for a short while. The thought of Pavel being better and leaving the sick bay was both pleasing and a little disappointing. He had grown almost accustomed to seeing the boy’s face all day, and for some reason didn’t want that to go away. However, it would mean that he was well again, so McCoy refused to see it as a bad thing.

As the day continued, he spent his time trying to forget that there was a pair of eyes following him.

 

XxX

 

Pavel was so bored. He was feeling stronger, and he wanted to get out of bed, but he was sure that if he tried, he would probably fall over and do more harm than good. So, with little other inspiration, he started watching McCoy. He saw him writing up charts, treating the few patients that came in and out, sitting in his office, falling asleep at his desk, and he found that he could now track the doctor’s movements with his eyes closed, knowing where McCoy was just by sensing him.

On the evening of his third night stuck in the medical bay, he felt McCoy move over to stand at the end of his bed, and opened his eyes before McCoy could make himself known and saw the mild surprise quickly flash across McCoy’s face.

He couldn’t help but smile up at the doctor through his exhaustion, noticing the corners of his mouth twisting up at the sight of Pavel’s smile. He then hesitantly came around to sit at the side of the bed, sighing, before jumping in with a totally unexpected question,

“I just don’t understand it, why d’you keep watching me? I can’t be that interesting” he said, leaning back in his chair to study Pavel’s face.

Pavel was stunned. He hadn’t realised that he had been being that obvious, but apparently he was wrong. McCoy was sat there, looking straight at Pavel’s face, and Pavel had no idea what to say. He was a bit shocked that McCoy’s questioning had been so abrupt, not usually one to be so straightforward. Sensing the awkwardness settling in, Pavel answered as best as he could, 

“You are the only constant here in the medical bay who is interesting. I love seeing you work, and seeing what you are doing all day. I can’t really help it, sorry...” he trailed off, not sure what else he should say.

 

XxX

 

McCoy was speechless at Pavel’s answer, not sure why he was surprised by such an honest answer to the simple question. And apparently the boy was a bit surprised at his answer as well because as he stopped talking a blush started to rise up on his cheeks. Which of course started to stir up some not entirely unwelcome feelings; a warmth in his chest at the sight of the boys cheeks turning red.

He shook his head slightly as Chekov was looking away from him, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. He had to stay focused, he had had a genuine medical reason to come and talk to the boy before he left to go and get some sleep.

“Uh, okay, so I realise you’re feeling a bit bored so I have some good news for you.” Chekov looked up at him, a small ray of hope showing in his eyes, “Tomorrow, we’re gunna get you outta that bed and see if you can walk around for a bit. Nothing big” he held up his hand, stopping Pavel’s words, “but we’ll see how it goes, okay kid?” and as he was finishing up his sentence, he felt the need to get up and leave Chekov to go to sleep, but the boy’s voice stopped him.

“Thank you, Doctor McCoy.” he said softly, and McCoy was almost out of his chair before he heard Chekov speak again, “Do you think that you could, um...” It appeared as though the boy was having trouble finding the right words, “maybe, stay? Just for a while, I had no visitors today. It’s been... lonely.” and as stunned as he was, and so unsure as to why the boy had asked him to be the one to stay, he sunk back into his chair and muttered a gruff, 

“Yeah, sure” as he settled down. Chekov smiled and closed his eyes, clearly content to have the doctor sat by his side, and drifted into sleep. McCoy wasn’t sure why he didn’t leave when he knew that Chekov was sleeping, he just couldn’t leave the innocent expression that had settled over the boy’s face.

McCoy was asleep before he could ponder any of his thoughts further.


	4. Walking Not Quite To Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 4. This is dedicated to my good friend Tayla who inspired me to start writing again. reviews are very welcome

He leant into the mouth pressing against his lips, not ready for the sensation to be over. As he had to pull away for air, he looked down into the eyes of Pavel Chekov, who was staring up at him through his lashes with a beautiful smile gracing those perfect lips. He took a moment to just stare into his eyes before he leant back into another kiss.

Soon he was walking the boy backwards towards his bed, slowly shedding their clothes until nothing was left between them. He had never had this sort of moment with his ex-wife, but looking into the eyes before him, it was like an anchor. The two of them, together, were complete. And Leonard McCoy was entirely happy.

XxX

As McCoy woke up he realised two things. Firstly, he was most definitely not in his own bed. And secondly, there was warm breath falling onto his face coming from a different person. He hurried to sit up, and almost fell off his chair as he rocked backwards, throwing his arms out to stop himself crashing onto the floor. He looked around the thankfully empty medical bay to make sure nobody had seen him sleeping next to Chekov, and sighed in relief upon finding it empty.

As he remembered the dream he had been having just moments before, a blush rose on his cheeks. What should he do now? He decided his safest option was to try to forget the phantom feeling of the boys lips against his, and try to get on with his day as he normally would have had he not awoken by Chekov’s bedside.

As he stretched, he realised that he had ended up holding Chekov’s hand throughout the night as they slept. He pulled away quickly, standing up and turning away, not noticing Pavel’s eyes slowly blinking open due to the loss of warmth next to him.

He didn’t look back over at Pavel, too embarrassed to think about the consequences of sleeping there all night. People would have seen him, the entire night shift. ‘Yeah, all four of them’ he thought sarcastically, shaking his head and walking over to his office to check the time.

“Shit” it was almost time for his shift to start. He quickly went for the change of clothes he kept in his office, and was just putting his shoes back on when he heard Christine wishing Pavel a good morning as she entered the medbay. Wait, Pavel was awake? Had he woken up with McCoy’s hand still gripping his? Did he feel uncomfortable and pretend to be asleep to avoid any awkwardness? Was he just letting McCoy leave before he started telling everyone that McCoy was crazy? Were they going to have to talk about ‘what it meant’ that McCoy had so easily fallen asleep HOLDING HIS FREAKING HAND?

He snapped out of this line of thinking when he nearly fell over, one shoe still half in his hand, half on his foot. ‘So this is what I’ve been reduced to’ thought McCoy, ‘I’m worrying like a freakin’ teenaged girl!’ He left that line of thinking quickly too, and decided to just pretend it never happened. And that maybe he should leave Pavel alone and avoid him for a while.

And his plan worked, for a solid 10 minutes. He had basically decided to shut himself in his office for the whole day. Or hey, maybe the whole week. Fate had other plans it seemed, as he heard a crash come from somewhere outside his door. He rushed out, ready to shout at someone for being stupid, when he saw a cluster of people crowded around Chekov. He looked as though he’d successfully walked about halfway down towards McCoy’s office (ten or so steps) before he’d fallen over and taken a trolley with him. With all of his weird thoughts from earlier in the back of his head, he rushed over, helping Chapel hoist the boy up onto his feet, pulling his arms around his shoulders and walking him slowly towards his bed, most of their combined weight supported by McCoy.

After helping him to sit down, McCoy took up his seat from the previous night next to the bed, took a deep calming breath to make sure he didn’t appear angry at what had happened, and asked Chekov “what the hell were you thinking? I can tell that you didn’t ask for any help before wandering off. God damnit kid you could have hurt yourself” and okay, it got a little angry at the end, but McCoy couldn’t help it, he cared about the boy.

“I just did not want to be stuck in bed all day if you were going to hide in your office” replied Chekov, looking down at his feet and shuffling slightly before continuing “I wanted to show you that I could go back and recover in my quarters now if you want. That is all…”

XxX

He’d woken during the night to the sound of heavy breathing very near to him. He’d felt the slight play of breath across his arm, and the weight of another’s hand in his. He’d cracked his eyes open enough to see the top of McCoy’s head before he fell back asleep, feeling content to stay the way he was for as long as he could.

The next time he woke up was to the warmth suddenly leaving his side. He saw the doctor hurry away as fast as he could and shut the door to his office, never turning back even to look at him.

After twenty minutes of the doctor not returning he realised that he was most likely hiding away after waking up holding hands with a child which he obviously regretted. There had been a moment the day before when Pavel had thought that maybe the doctor liked him more than he let on. Even if it just meant a proper friendship instead of saying hello when they saw each other in a hallway (and Pavel staring at him whenever he had the chance) and he was okay with that. But clearly not.

He needed to get out of here, now. There was no point staying here and being even more miserable on top of having this stupid flu. He had to leave. But what about McCoy, he had to tell him he was leaving. So he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He even managed to stand up. But as he began to move, his whole body began to ache. After two steps, he felt a headache return. By five he was feeling dizzy. He was an optimist, and sometimes it made him make small mistakes. Like go drinking with friends and catch the flu, and have a huge crush on the CMO, and crash into trolleys and cause commotions. Oh dear.

XxX

McCoy was kind of speechless. The boy looked so sad and small sat there on his bed, trying to leave to make things easier on McCoy? He was clearly not doing well in his doctorly duties.

“Hey kid, it’s alright. We’re keeping you here until you can walk more than 10 steps, that’s for sure” he chuckled, looking away slightly before adding, “and I wasn’t hiding, I was just busy”. If it had been anyone else, McCoy would have left them then, telling his patient to wait another day before trying to walk again. But this was Chekov, so instead he sat there for another ten minutes while they both had breakfast and pointedly didn’t talk about the night before, before he stood up.

“Right, let’s get you up again, but this time I’m gunna help you out, and you’re gunna let me alright? I can’t have you hurting yourself anymore kid, I need to keep you alive, it’s sort of my job” and he smiled gently, which widened when he saw it returned on Chekov’s face,

“I am twenty years old, that is technically not a kid anymore” said Chekov, and McCoy started to laugh as he moved to pull Chekov to stand, letting himself smile without trying to cover up how he was feeling. It felt good to laugh here with Chekov, who had started laughing too as he was pulled to his feet gently.

“Okay then kid” he put a little emphasis on the word kid, earning an honest to god giggle from the boy as he continued “we’re gunna go nice and slow, take a lap of the medical bay, and then get you settled back into bed” and they did. Nice and slowly, not talking because this was going to wear Chekov out pretty quickly. McCoy had his arm curled around the boy’s waist, and with every step he was leaning more into the doctor’s side.

By the time they reached the bed again, they were both panting. One from exhaustion and one from some very confused sexual feelings about a twenty year old. ‘At least he’s over eighteen’ nagged a little voice in his head, which he decided to ignore, after acknowledging that yes, at least he was over eighteen. A thought which helped when he felt a hand reach out and tentatively grab his, and he looked to see the boy, ‘not a boy though, a man’, peacefully asleep again.

**Author's Note:**

> So, hope you liked it. I would like to know people's thoughts on whether you think I should make McCoy a little younger than canon (43), because I can't decide, so let me know your thoughts in a review.


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